Some thoughts on the Thunder’s 103-96 loss to the Heat

Man, it’s so good to see those blue uniforms on my TV screen again. So good.

For shame that the Thunder kind of crapped the bed a bit, especially on the defensive end and overall in the second half. The Heat beat OKC 103-96 behind 23 from Chris Bosh and 22 from LeBron. Kevin Durant had 21 for OKC and Russell Westbrook 18 points and six assists. Some life-changing thoughts:

I don’t think people are giving Chris Bosh enough credit. Everyone is talking Wade and LeBron, but geez, Chris Bosh is really, really good. Especially when he has that mid-range jumper working. He went straight at Jeff Green and really overwhelmed him. Before you get too crazy yelling and throwing things about Green, keep in mind we are talking about one of the top two or three power forwards in the game. A LOT of people are going to be overwhelmed by Bosh. Doesn’t mean I would’ve loved to have seen something better from Green though.

It was a tough night on both ends though for Uncle Jeff. He gets manhandled by Bosh on one end, and on the other he went 1-11 from the floor. One night he’s 9-14, the next he’s 1-11. That kind of stuff happens in preseason.

Cole Aldrich started and it was hard not to like what you saw. His line was meh: 22 minutes, two points, 1-1 from the field, four rebounds, three blocks. That definitely doesn’t impress. But Aldrich sets really, really nice screens. He’s a worker and was constantly active on the glass, tipping rebounds and working on the interior. For only his second professional game, I’m encouraged that he can contribute this season.

Aldrich just awkwardly pumps his arms when he walks, jogs or runs full speed. I can’t get over it. It’s probably because his arms are so dang long. They’re like impressively long. His wingspan covers almost the entire lane when he spreads out. He definitely will be a defensive force at some point.

Of the starters, the only plus was Aldrich who finished with a plus-six.

Daequan Cook could be extremely valuable. Not as a primary rotation player, but as a guy that comes in off the bench for 5-8 minutes, spreads the floor, hits two quick 3s and then sits back down. The guy can definitely shoot. He’s a bit streaky and after starting 2-2, he missed his next four of five, but still, 3-7 from deep is nice. I’d definitely give him the edge over Morris Peterson right now.

After a nice first half, the Thunder just went to poo offensively in the third. They were outscored 32-19 and Durant just never really got the jumper going. KD finished 5-13 from the floor but as KD tends to do, made up at the line hitting 10-10.

The Thunder wore white shoes with the blues. I THOUGHT WE WERE PAST THIS.

No Byron Mullens, Peterson, Elijah Millsap, Tweety Carter, Longar Longar, Jerome Dyson or Royal Ivey. Kind of disappointed we didn’t see Millsap. I still think he has a shot with this organization.

James Harden had one of those nights where it never really got going for him. He finished with 15 points and five rebounds, but on 2-8 shooting with five turnovers. The one thing about Harden now though is he’s finding his way to the line. He’s great at driving and the fact he was 8-8 from the stripe is very nice.

One thing that’s much improved with Russell Westbrook is his handle. He’s playing as fast as he did his rookie year when he was often reckless and out of control. But now, he’s flying up the court completely control of the ball. It’s edge-of-your-seat stuff every time he has the ball. It’s like a hand-off to Adrian Peterson. It’s just exciting. Prepare for Russell Westbrook this season, NBA. Consider yourself warned.

It’s preseason and there’s definitely some rust and some kinks to get worked out. This isn’t the finished product and while there were some encouraging, nice things, there were definitely some things that need to be sorted out.

Sas :@DaveYou know, we actually might get a decent entire bench lineup if you went Maynor-Cook-Green-Collison-Krstic. Good defense and we still have decent scoring. And I favor Green, in the SF spot, against the second stringers much more than the starting PF spot.

I love this idea. We could have a platoon system almost! Green could be the main bench scorer and play his natural SF position. If only he'd be okay with coming off the bench. This only kinda leaves Thabo in the lurch.

As good as Westbrook can be sometimes, last season by the numbers he was the least efficient on the team. Some teams might have built that into their defense, playing the percentages, though sometimes losing on that. If he is new and improved and stays that way long-term, great.

Thabo's usage was 9th. Scoring isn't a big part of his job. Maynor's was 7th. An appropriate level until he can score more efficiently. Westbrook's 2nd place on usage was far ahead of 5 guys who are more clearly efficient. Whether any of them could handle using more possessions well is debatable but then you have to ask if the rotation or roster has enough guys who can handle a large enough part of the offense well enough to be a stronger offense and still take care of defense.

Using Maynor-Cook-Green-Collison-Krstic at all will require at least one of Thabo and Harden getting less than 24 minutes per game. Time for Cook is not a priority to me though and this lineup with Harden would be even better to me. I could support experimenting with either or both to see if they click.

It is real early here on Cook but also pretty late in general. I guess I should be open to the possibility he plays and well but I just don't have that good an impression from his time in Miami. If he had played only 1-2 years it would be easier, but he has had 3 and nearly 5000 minutes and he has posted a career PER 8.9 and a peak of 10.3 with significantly below average shooting and scoring efficiency each season and last season was by far the worst. On this team his wing defense is not that special (even the emphasis on it) or enough of a reason to play him. He improved from year 1 to 2 and had injury issues so maybe year 4 might rebound; but he was still a below average wing at his best.

I really liked Aldrich. He played (and might be able to play better) like Collison. Ibaka should be in as PF In the 2nd quarter and 3rd I feel it seems like he is more productive in those quarters. Im still not sold on the Jeff Green trade, you guys weren't crying out loud for it in his first preseason game. He was out manned by Bosh, but it was fun seeing Aldrich/Ibaka on the help defense though. But there was no excuse on his offense though.

I, too, would have loved to see Ibaka/Aldrich. This is pre-season, this is the time to loosen things up and try something that, as Justin says, makes sense, but needs to be seen on the court. However, when one of your two available centers has 3 fouls in the first quarter, it's not hard to understand why he sits.

@Joshua G“I understand the general love for Ibaka, but I don’t think last night he deserved it.” Completely agree with that. I was expecting a lot of improvement from Ibaka, but last night he looked a lot like the same player (small sample size, to say the least). My point was that I think Ibaka could have held his own better against Bosh. But he was never given the chance, he only played center. I think he should have been playing with Aldrich some, and we should see that more once the big guys come back.

That's all I'm saying. He didn't earn more minutes last night. And I don't think that it was just because he was off (like Jeff Green's jumper definitely was). I think he was out of control. The very first thing I said in this comment thread was, "I understand the general love for Ibaka, but I don’t think last night he deserved it." It's just ridiculous to criticize Brooks for 'slavishly' sticking with Green despite poor play when people are doing the same exact thing with Ibaka.

And how does putting Ibaka on the floor (who supposedly isn't a good man defender) with Aldrich make it any easier to defend Bosh? If Aldrich is on the floor at C, he's not going to be guarding Bosh is he? So you're left with Ibaka guarding him.

I'm contending that the way that Ibaka was playing last night (out of control with little good defensive contribution), he didn't earn more minutes (and even so, he did get a lot of minutes).

@Joshua GIbaka struggled last night, not denying that. But he was barely given an opportunity in the first half. He was a great man defender on Lamar Odom, a guy with a fairly similar offensive game as Bosh. Ibaka is a significantly better defender than Green on a player like Bosh. Green is overmatched because of his lack of length, Ibaka doesn't have that problem. Ibaka likely wasn't given any time at the 4 because outside of Aldrich, he was our only other player who could play center.

He isn't ready for starter minutes yet, he's best as an energy guy off the bench getting about 18 minutes. As can be expected for young players not from Europe or the Americas, he just has a lot to learn about decision making and fundamentals.

I also thought Cole looks like he shows promise to develop as an outlet passer. I was a little concerned that he seemed a bit stone handed trying to catch the ball in the post, but it wasn't like they tried to dump it down to him very much, so it could still be nerves. He should have better hands than that given his rebounding ability.

I forgot to mention that one of those Ibaka blocks was a Dwight Howard type block that was way out of control. It went straight to the 10th row or something like that and Miami kept the ball and scored a bucket on the possession. In this regard, Durant is the better shot blocker. And that block makes me miss Collison. The charge is so valuable.

Ibaka / Green is just a poor combination. Ibaka does best playing next to a big guy who can hold the fort down and play smart (like Collison). Playing next to an undersized dude like Green exposes his weaknesses, i.e. his inability to box out and use his body/rotate properly.

I think Ibaka / Aldrich can work out much like Ibaka / Collison does, and it was frustrating to not see that lineup for much of the game.

I understand the general love for Ibaka, but I don't think last night he deserved it. I don't think he had very good control last night. He was fouling way too much, imo. In almost as many minutes as Green he had one more point and two more blocks, the same number of turnovers and fouls and 0 rebounds to Green's 5.

Now, the last time I checked, the thing that everyone complains about is that Green doesn't rebound like a PF should. Well, last night he was the best rebounder, while Ibaka was the worst (in fact, he was the only Thunder player who didn't get a single rebound).

Like I said, Ibaka may be a better fit, but last night did not demonstrate that.

Does anybody know where to find +/- splits for the game? I'd especially like to see Aldrich's numbers. I have a feeling he might have been the only player with significant minutes to have finished in the positive on that. His stats weren't that great, but he just seems to eat up so much court with his physicality and drain so much effort from the other team with his energy and physical play.

I'm also wanting to see Cook get some decent minutes this year, but looking at the roster it's just hard to see how that happens.

Overall, I'm just very excited about this year now, as Cole adjusts to the pro game I could see us getting much better. I'd be shocked if he isn't starting very soon, but knowing Brooks I'm just a little worried about being to conservative about ever changing rotations.

@DaveYou know, we actually might get a decent entire bench lineup if you went Maynor-Cook-Green-Collison-Krstic. Good defense and we still have decent scoring. And I favor Green, in the SF spot, against the second stringers much more than the starting PF spot.

Agree with Justin and Sammy. RW/JH/KD/SI/CA needs to be the line up. Start that way immediately, give them time to learn to play together. Green, Thabo, Collison & Maynor off the bench make a good 9-man rotation. Cook and Krstic could help out some if needed.

I'm not ready to give up on Green, but him and coach need to realize he'd be the perfect 6th man.

It was kind of a rough game all around. It was frustrating to watch KD struggle, and I feel for Jeff. I understand why a lot of people around here don't want him on the court, and it's hard to argue with them after this game... but I think he's still valuable to the team, but definitely not in the number of minutes he's getting if his shot is this off.

I wanted to see more of Cook. I was very pleasantly surprised to see how well he played out there. I think he might have been trying to show off for his old team, but whatever gets those threes through the net, right? He is incredible for a 3rd shooting guard.

The coolest thing to me is the depth we have. We were missing our two best big guys tonight, and we were still able to play at a really high level. If Thabo or Harden is hurt, Cook can step in and play quality minutes. Jeff or Thabo can fill in at the three. And if Westbrook his hurt, Maynor is about as good a backup as you can hope for. I'm psyched for this season, even after a kind of lackluster game.

why all the hate on green? yeah he went 1-11 but at least he wasn't settling for long 2s or 3s. I actually like what he did out there he kept taking it right at the defense. people jump the gun on green to much, one bad game and trade ideas get thrown all over the place

I tried soooo hard to NOT know what happen in the game cause I went to The Center fomerly know as Ford to see MUSE.(but i herd)I sat REALLY close to the stage on the side and the seats were so soft and plush... it felt like riding in a pimp's Caddy. (no point here. Just setting the stage)Tonight's the 1st time I'll be able to utilize DVR(just got it) for game watching, after the fact.Here I go...THUNDER!

BTW...They have $5, 6-point at the bar, so avoid the $6.50 headache draft.

speaking of nene, it's amazing how far the guy's come through such adversity. it wasn't but a few years ago that he was just a big lumbering hustle guy who could rip the rim off, but couldn't make an uncontested layup.. and i hated him. but now, i salivate at even the possibility of having that beast of a player (who can now hit much more than just an uncontested layup) on my team

but westbrook looked great out there. and aldrich's screens were nothing short of amazing. james harden's beard was also equally amazing

I think the thing missing tonight was the fans....., Miami won't stand a chance when they come to our house. Those fans tonight were boring. No matter what you say..... The fans can make or break a game. Okc has the best fans